ABSTRACT
The most famous Indian woman in American history, Pocahontas, the young daughter of an Indian chief, has been portrayed and represented in historical writings and in Hollywood movies. Her life has been interpreted from ethno historical sources but archaeological excavations are undertaken and the findings published, the life of this Powhatan child is becoming clearer. At the core of the Pocahontas myth is romance, a customary formula for many Hollywood productions. Physically, she is always depicted in her late teens or early twenties, with a thin build and an uncontrollable infatuation with Captain John Smith. When Pocahontas was twelve or thirteen, she married a man named Kocoom, a warrior of little political influence. Pocahontas died at Gravesend on March 21, 1617, with her husband John and son Thomas Rolfe by her side. She had achieved celebrity status in London prior to her death because of her Indian ethnicity, cross-cultural diplomacy, and role in making the Virginia Company profitable.
